Log: BA calls halt to low fares lucky dip

Last month I wanted to book a flight to Venice. I was planning to travel during that strangely dead period between Christmas and New Year when life in Britain always seems to grind to a halt. Surely during such a time I'd find a cheap deal on the Internet.

There were seats available on the no-frills airlines. Go had availability on its direct flight and Ryanair had places on its service to Treviso, about 30 minutes' drive from Venice. Neither return fare was especially cheap - and both flights involved awkward journeys to or from Stansted at inconvenient times.

Expedia (www.expedia.co.uk) and Travelocity (www.travelocity.co.uk) had reasonable fares, but unreasonable routes that meant a change of plane in Frankfurt, Brussels or some other Euro-junction.

The British Airways website, however, wasn't sure what it was charging on direct flights. One minute it quoted a return fare of £600, the next it was £240. I must have logged on to the site a dozen times over two days and it never showed the same fare twice. I held back in the hope that the flickering price needle would suddenly sag to £140. No such luck - but I did manage to snap up a £240 deal.

Happily, BA has since removed this lucky dip element from its website. Go to the British Airways home page (www.britishairways.com) now and on the right of the screen you will see a box which reads 'New and easier booking - click here to begin'. This new on-line service - called Fare Explorer - at last brings some common sense to the business of looking for good-value fares.

It asks which route you want to fly and when you plan to go and come back.

Suppose you want to fly from London to Amsterdam on February 22, returning on February 24. Fare Explorer shows you the best-priced return fare applicable several days before and several days after your planned date, so that you can change your travel plans to take advantage of a better rate. The best possible return fare with February 22 is £98 but, if I were to travel two days earlier, the best price starts at £73.

The fare you actually pay is determined also by your return date - and the flight time you choose on the days of travel. If I return as planned on February 24, the return fare will be £123. If I wait until the next day, it will be £98. Travelling out on February 22, of the eight flights available, I could travel on five of them at the £98 return fare but, coming back, just one is available at £98 - using any of the others increases the fare to £113 or £128.

According to Simon Parks-Smith, head of e-commerce at British Airways, the new system, which has been developed over two years, has been produced to satisfy customer demand for the airline to provide easier access to the cheap fares which BA advertises.

He says: 'I think people will be surprised when they see just how cheap it can be to fly with BA - for a weekend trip to Paris or Barcelona we have fares which are every bit as competitive as those offered by the no-frills airlines. And the price you see is the price you pay, there are no hidden extras.' Customers booking an 'e-ticket' on-line receive a £5 discount.

With this new BA system - and the launch last week of the excellent bargain fare-finding website Opodo (www.opodo.co.uk) - buying cheap air tickets has never been easier.

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